Picture Perfect

PICTURE PERFECT

Kate Watterson

POLYAMOUR

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

IMPRINT: PolyAmour

PICTURE PERFECT

Copyright © 2010 by Kate Watterson

E-book ISBN: 1-60601-587-7

First E-book Publication: May 2010

Cover design by Jinger Heaston

All cover art and logo copyright © 2010 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:
This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

PUBLISHER

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

Letter from Kate Watterson

Regarding Ebook Piracy

The issue of Ebook piracy is a growing concern for all authors. Please take into account the time, effort and investment of both the author and the publisher before sharing or selling any Ebook. That said, I hope you enjoy the story!

With deep gratitude,

KATE WATERSON

Copyright © 2010

Chapter One

The straw was a little on the prickly side, especially considering how much bare skin was exposed to it each time she changed position.

A favor for a friend. Just think of it that way
.

Victoria Lambeth obediently moved her head an inch to the side and propped one booted foot on the bale of hay where she sat, a small, hopefully provocative smile on her face.

“Yes, yes, just right, perfect. Keep changing poses, doing what feels natural…right. That’s it. Good girl.”

The litany of encouraging phrases were punctuated by the continuous click of the camera, and she leaned forward, tossed her hair back, and deliberately exposed a pretty graphic view of her breasts since they were all but falling out of the barely there bikini top she wore anyway.

“I like that. Terrific. Don’t move. Just let me adjust the light, okay?” Andy, his long, fair hair caught back in a ponytail, his glasses always just a little crooked, hurried to adjust one of the lamps he’d brought. Victoria was amused to see he wore his usual costume of jeans so ragged a bony knee stuck out every time he crouched down, and his T-shirt had been washed until the logo of the rock band was no longer visible.

Some things never changed. Even back in high school he’d looked like a hippie throwback from the sixties. The barn was warm and smelled like summer between the scent of the hay, weathered wood, and the faintest hint of manure. One corner served as a makeshift photography studio, with the straw bales artistically stacked so she could perch on top of them and two sets of rolling lights.

“You doing okay? Need to take a break? Want a drink? It’s warm in here.”

“I’m not too warm,” she said dryly, with one hand indicating what she wore. “Where did you get this suit anyway? An adult store?”

He pretended to look offended. “Hey, I paid a lot for it at one of your finer shops in Santa Fe. I think maybe I just underestimated the size of your…er…assets. Speaking as a healthy heterosexual adult male, take my word for it, you don’t show them off often enough.”

She liked to think she was comfortable enough with her body to not have to flaunt what she had or didn’t have, so it was true. She dressed fairly conservatively. Maybe even ladylike.

What she was doing now wasn’t ladylike
at all
.

She gave Andy a quelling look. “I get one hint of a leer, I’m through with all this, get it?”

This time the offended look was genuine. “I’m a professional, Tori. You’re just another model when I pick up my camera. Now, let’s make this the best damn shoot ever. Sit back a little and spread your legs. Make it sexy. You’re gorgeous. Show me.”

It took a little mental pep talk to comply, but she managed to follow the instructions for the next half hour or so, pouting into the camera, lying back with her hand on her thigh and one knee bent, her hair spilling off the edge of the less than comfortable bale of straw.

“What the hell is this?”

The interruption was jarring, and she looked over her shoulder from a bent pose with her ass pointed at the camera to see a man in the doorway of the barn, wearing an amused expression. His tall, lean body was silhouetted by the outside sunshine, his shirt half-unbuttoned and damp with sweat, the sleeves rolled up to show off brawny forearms. He also had on jeans and dusty boots, and his dark hair was disheveled and waved back from a good-looking face that was all angles and chiseled lines.

This was some crappy luck. She thought Wade Preston was supposed to be out most of the day. In fact, she could swear Ross had told her his younger brother was working on fences at the south end of the ranch, and to quote him, “The job was a long son-of-a-bitch.”

She started to straighten, but Andy barked, “Don’t you dare move, Tori. This is a great shot.”

“I have to agree it’s an interesting view, but mind telling me why you’re taking pictures of my brother’s girlfriend’s ass, Kendall?” The metal in the bridle in Wade’s hand clinked as he moved to casually hang the tack on a peg on the wall.

Victoria was pretty sure she was past maidenly blushes at the age of twenty-four, but she was wrong. Wade always made her a little uncomfortable.

She mumbled, “He’s putting together a portfolio for a job opportunity, and I agreed to help out. No one is going to see these pictures except his potential boss, who shoots naked women all the time. Now, do you mind leaving?”

“This is half my barn,” Wade said, one dark brow going up in a slow, irritating lift.

In the half a year she’d been dating his brother, she and Wade hadn’t really formed any kind of friendship and it bothered her. Victoria couldn’t tell if he didn’t like her, didn’t trust her, or if he was just standoffish by nature.

Whatever it was, posing in a string bikini in front of Andy was bad enough. She felt naked—hell, she basically
was
naked—and though she wasn’t a prude, she wasn’t at ease, either.

“Andy,” Tori said with a warning note in her voice. They’d been friends since kindergarten. He got it right away.

“Mind helping me out by leaving, dude?” he asked Wade. “This job pays damn good. I need it if I’m going put that book together I told you about, and…hey, Jesus. Wait a minute.”

Victoria refused to stand there with her ass in plain view any longer, especially since Andy wasn’t shooting pictures but looking at Wade instead. She straightened and turned, folding her arms over her chest in an ineffectual attempt to cover quite a lot of bare skin.

“You, Preston,” Andy said thoughtfully, “are a good-looking guy. One might even say a
very
good-looking guy.”

The only saving grace in the entire embarrassing afternoon was that Wade’s outraged masculine expression was priceless. He said, “What the hell do you want me to say to that? Thanks? Sorry, but coming from another guy—”

“If I take in some pictures of a man and a woman, I might be able to pitch my book.” Andy’s voice took on an edge of unmistakable excitement. “The two of you would look great together, and this is perfect. I couldn’t order up the sweaty-off-the-range look any better. Would you mind taking off your shirt?”

* * * *

Wade Preston couldn’t decide if he should laugh or swear out loud. First of all, he was pretty sure his heart stopped beating when he walked into the barn a few minutes ago. Tori, bent over in a position he’d imagined her in a few too many times for comfort, was really a sight to see. Long legs, a firm, perfectly shaped ass, her slender arms braced on the hay bales as she looked over her shoulder with a coy smile. Long sun-streaked blond hair tumbled around her face, her features delicately beautiful—small nose, enormous dark blue eyes, high, perfect cheekbones, all model perfect—which was undoubtedly why Andy Kendall pressured her to pose for him.

She was wearing almost nothing, just a red and white checked bikini that was little more than some inadequate strands of material stitched together, and her athletic body, so smooth and female, had an unfortunate impact on his senses.

Especially his sense of loyalty.

She was involved with Ross. If he had fantasies, well, they’d have to just stay his dirty little secret. He loved his brother. Unfortunately, he also loved his brother’s girlfriend in a completely different way. That was one hell of a dilemma, he’d discovered. He and Ross had always been close.

He felt guilty, frustrated, and about one thousand other things every time he was around her.

“What?” he asked, forcing himself to focus on Andy’s request with effort, his wayward thoughts jumbled by Victoria’s presence in her
almost
bathing suit. “Why should I take off my shirt?”

Instead of answering, Kendall turned to Victoria. “Would you? We talked about doing this down the line, but Ross is always so busy and Wade is right here and everything is all set up. Why not just do it now?”

Would she what
?

He didn’t even realize he’d said it out loud.

“Not total nudity. I wouldn’t ask that,” Andy explained quickly in a persuasive tone, glancing at him, but his gaze going right back to Tori. “Just a few sexy shots. Upper torso bare, some touching. Not a big deal. I need shots of a couple.”

Upper torso bare. Some touching. Yeah, that might just
be
a big deal.

“I’m not a male model.” Wade affected a nonchalant shrug, but he had a grim feeling he didn’t pull it off. “Sorry.”

“Don’t have to be. Stand around and look buff. Tori is who everyone will be staring at anyway.”

“Comments like that don’t make me more comfortable,” she said, adjusting the strap on her top in a self-conscious mannerism. Her cheeks were stained a becoming pink.

“I’m just telling him he doesn’t have to have any special skills to do this.” Andrew looked back and forth between them earnestly. “This will be great, and you know what? If we do it this way, no one has to sit around and get nervous. There’s no thinking about it. Let’s just run with it and see how it goes.”

Wade opted for a pretty good out. “It just might,” he drawled, “piss my brother off.”

Victoria looked at him, her pretty blue eyes serious. “No,” she said with reluctant finality. “Ross and I talked about me posing naked, and he’s fine with it. I guess I will if you will. Andy’s right. I’m not much of an exhibitionist. Getting it over with holds some appeal.”

What was he supposed to say next?

Oh, that’s great, but see, I’ve got this thing for you that won’t go away, so maybe us half-naked together isn’t such a good idea
.

“Go unbutton his shirt. Preston, all you have to do is watch her do it. Pretend I’m not even here.” Kendall jumped in with both feet, fiddling with his camera and assuming that any red-blooded male would be right on board. Which Wade
would
be, except, Jesus, what had he done in a past life to make fate torture his sorry ass this way?

A light sweat broke out all over his body as Victoria walked toward him, her breasts swaying just enough under the inadequate support of that skimpy top to make him look. Fuck. He
looked
.

“Ross was going to do this with me,” she explained, still looking adorably uncertain. “But Andy’s right. He’s so busy right now he can’t seem to find the time. Since you finished repairing the fence early, it’s nice of you to take his place.”

Well, that was the problem neatly summed up. He’d love to take his brother’s place. In her bed, cock in deep, those long, lovely legs wrapped around his waist. It made him an asshole, but he’d found, unfortunately, that telling himself to just get over it didn’t work. It had been love at first sight like he was sixteen and in the grip of an adolescent crush, not a twenty-five-year-old man who should have better sense, but it wouldn’t go away. He did his best to make himself scarce when she was around based on the whole out of sight, out of mind theory, but he still thought about her. A lot.

All the time, if he was honest with himself.

Shit
.

“I have chores,” he mumbled, frozen as she actually reached for the buttons on his shirt. Reflexively, he caught her slim wrists.

“Half an hour,” Andy said, already poised behind his camera. “Just give me a half an hour. Damn, that’s a good shot already. Let me see more bare chest. This book is going to be an exposé on modern sexuality so look at her like you’re thinking about getting laid, Wade.”

Oh yeah, that’ll be difficult
.

“Too modest? Relax. I’ve seen you plenty enough times without your shirt. Aren’t you the guy who wandered out for coffee in just his boxers the other morning?” Victoria lifted her brows with a small laugh, and he realized he still had her wrists trapped and let go, muttering an inner curse. It was true, she seemed to spend the night with increasing frequency as things got more serious between her and Ross, and he never knew when she might be there.

“That wasn’t intentional,” he said, trying to ignore the sweet scent of flowers drifting from her shining hair as she moved closer and began to unbutton his shirt. He was going to get an erection, damn it, he felt it happening already as her slender fingers deftly began to slip the buttons free. When she tugged the hem from the waistband of his jeans and reached up to push the shirt off his shoulders, her breasts actually brushed his bared skin.

“That’s perfect.” Andy moved around, crouched behind the fancy, high-tech camera he always seemed to have in his hands. “Stare at each other and think about sex.”

“Or a cold beer,” Victoria said facetiously, “if the sex thing doesn’t work for you.”

If she cared to press her hand to Wade’s crotch, she might just find out the sex fantasy thing was doing just fine for him. He hoped Andy didn’t catch a nice shot of his bulge for his damned book because that wasn’t how he wanted to be immortalized in print. Men had one distinct disadvantage and that was how impossible it was to hide sexual arousal.

His breath went in with a hiss as she actually touched him, placing her palm on his chest. “Nice pecs,” she said and gazed up at him from under the fringe of her lashes with a slight smile. “Ross said you use that weight room the two of you put in. It looks like it.”

Yes, that it was, remind him of Ross and how lusting after his girlfriend was all wrong. About how a decent brother wouldn’t dream of touching her. “Repairing fences isn’t a bad workout, either,” he managed to mumble, the cool press of her hand on his skin making his cock swell to full mast. His balls actually tightened. “I might not smell too good. It’s hard work.”

He could use a shower. A long cold one, he had a dismal feeling, when this was over.

“Don’t you know women go for the slightly sweaty cowboy look?” Victoria’s smile deepened teasingly. “Dusty boots, a pair of jeans, and a hard, tanned chest. Nothing better.”

God, her eyes were the most beautiful color of blue. Like the New Mexican sky at dawn as the sun began to rise and the darkness became tinged with indigo. “Is that so?” he murmured, doing his best to sound casual. If she was paying attention, she might figure out his heart was pounding like the hooves of a runaway horse at a flat out gallop.